Verne

JULES VERNE (1828 - 1905)

In 1859 Jules Verne, while travelling to London from Scotland, passed through the North East by train, and was struck by the multitude of chimneys and nocturnal fires in the coalfield - 'a terrifying nightscape'. In this, his first full-scale narrative (translated as Backwards to Britain) he was greatly taken by the fact that some mines ran out under the sea-bed. Captain Nemo's crew in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea obtain coal from submarine outcrops 'like the mines of Newcastle' as Verne puts it. In chapter 24 of Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864) we also find; ‘Are there not mines under the sea at Newcastle ?’

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
JULES VERNE (1828 - 1905) In 1859 Jules Verne, while travelling to London from Scotland, passed through the North East by train, and was struck by the multitude of chimneys and nocturnal fires in the coalfield - 'a terrifying nightscape'. In this, his first full-scale narrative (translated as Backwards to Britain) he was greatly taken by the fact that some mines ran out under the sea-bed. Captain Nemo's crew in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea obtain coal from submarine outcrops 'like the mines of Newcastle' as Verne puts it. In chapter 24 of Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864) we also find; ‘Are there not mines under the sea at Newcastle ?’
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